LD H 1 59 

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AN- Up: 

ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

RUTGERS COLLEGE, 

JULY 27TH, 1852, 

X UiL i)AV PHEC£IH>sG THE AX\l Al. C OMilEN C E^ EN T 

REV. ABKAHiUI POLHEiMUS. 



Off EOPS-WSI.I. K. T 



':sl:3Hed at the request os" the Asaoc 



PJXTF]) HV .1()M\ ,^ ...VKFORT STREET i«' 

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AN 



ADDPiESS 



DELIVERED 



BEFORE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 



RUTGEES COLLEGE, 



JULY 27TH, 1852, 



OX THE DAT PRECEDING THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT, 



^ 



REV. ABRAHAM POLHEMUS, 



OF HOPEWELL, IT T. 




PUBLISHED AT THE EEQTJEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 



PRINTED BY JOHN A. GRAY, 97 CLIFF, COR. FRANKFORT STREET 

1853. 



.I\ 



^N'EW-BErNSWiCE:, July 28th, 1852. 
Ret. Abraham Polhemts : 

Dear Sir : — I have tlie pleasure of transmitting to you tlie following extract 
from the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Alumni Association of Rutgers 
College for the year 1852 : 

'' On motion by Cortlandt Parker, Esq., it was resolved, That the thanks of the 
Alumni be presented to Rev. Abraham Polhemus for his extremely able and useful 
address, and that a copy of the same be requested for publication by the Asso- 
ciation." Respectfully yours, 

DAVID BISHOP, Sec. 



Hopewell, K Y., August 5th, 1852. 
Datid Bishop, Esq. : 

Dear Sir : — Permit me, through you, to express to the Association my thanks 
for the very flattering terms in whicli they have been pleased to speak of my 
address. Their kind expression I cannot but think was induced more by their 
own awakened interest in behalf of our Alma Mater, than by any thing in the 
address itself. I yield, however, to the wishes of my fellow Alumni ; and if its 
circulation should extend the generous spirit of those who have requested its 
publication, its object will be accomplished. 

For yourself personally, accept the assurance of my sincere regard. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

ABRAHAM POLHEMUS. 



^iiress. 



Gentlemen of the Alumni Association : 

Permitted once more to assemble within these walls, 
consecrated by the memory of pleasant hours and hallowed 
associations, alloAV me to congratulate you on all the cheering 
auspices that render this da}^ one of high promise to our 
beloved Alma Mater. From the first days of our organization 
until now, the sons of Kutgers have never had occasion to say 
with more emphatic confidence, "The night is far spent, and 
the day is at hand." Brave hearts and true have long battled 
with a variety of difficulties incident to our position, and some- 
what complicated relations; but they are permitted to rejoice 
with us this day that they have not run or labored in vain, 
and that the long anticipated success is beginning to crown 
their efibrts. 

You may lay it down as a general maxim, even in matters 
where the application is any thing but complimentary, that 
success commands friends. The season of greatest trial is shared 
by the few, and well-wishers stand aloof in the hour of doubtful 
enterprise ; but when once the undertaking bids fair to make 
its way, despite the opposition of its foes and the neglect of 
those who should have lent a helping hand, then it gathers 
friends from every quarter, and the true policy is not to repel 
them. We welcome then this day the gathering of friends 
from whatever direction, and in their cominoj -^^e read the 
verdict that our institution has triumphed, and henceforth they 
stand ready to bid it a God-speed, and help it on by their 
cheerful, vigorous, and united co-operation. I trust that in 
the expression of these sentiments I speak that which will 
meet the unanimous response of my fellow Alumni ; or if 



there sliould be any dissent from tlie representation of tlie 
past, that there is bnt one heart and one voice as to our deter- 
mined policy for the future. 

An old philosopher has said: ''Let ns give the past to 
oblivion, the present to duty, the future to Providence." To 
two of these suggestions we could readily assent. "We are 
always ready to give the future to Providence, especially if we 
give the present to duty ; but we can never consent to give the 
past to oblivion. The past and the future are too intimately 
connected to consign the former to forgetfulness. The past is 
the mirror of the future. " The thing that hath been, it is 
that which shall be ;" and he would prove but a poor philoso- 
pher who did not suffer the former days to instruct him, and 
gather from their experience those lessons which constitute 
man's only real foresight, and from the progress made that 
encouragement which proves the best stimulus to human effort. 
Our present stand-point, be it great or small, is nothing except 
as it is linked with the past ; it bears no prognostication for 
the future except as it marks our progress or decline ; and it 
is upon these rather than upon any present condition that we 
base the calculation of our future. The question is not so 
much where we are, as whence we came ; not so much, what 
we are, as what we have been, what we are doing, and what 
our destination. And the facility or means by which we have 
reached our present point will best determine whether we shall 
ever reach a higher. 

Permit me then, gentlemen, to take a cursory view of the 
past history, the present condition, the prospective future of 
our Alma Mater, and the duty incumbent upon us to make 
that future what it should be. The institution whose eighty- 
first anniversary we are now celebrating owes its origin to the 
ministers and elders of the Protestant Keformed Dutch Church. 
That Church, while the Colony of New-Netherland, as it was 
then called, was under the government of the States General, 
was the estabhshed Church, and considered as a branch of the 
Church of Holland. Its ministers were for a long time fur- 
nished by the parent Church, which exercised no small control 
over it. The first house of worship built by the Dutch in the 
Colony was erected within the precincts of the old fort at New- 
York, in the year 1642. Their church records date from 1639. 



But while the churches multiplied, and the doctrines of grace 
were faithfully preached, and her ministers were characterized 
by learning and piety, there was no higher judicatory estab- 
lished in this country than a Consistory until the year 1737. 
In that year some of the prominent ministers of the Church 
met in the cit}?- of New- York, prepared and matured a plan 
for an assembly of ministers and elders, a body that should be 
subject to the Classis of Amsterdam, (to which the Dutch 
Church in North America Avas subordinate,) one whose powers 
should be simply of advice and fraternal intercourse. This 
assembly, or "Coetus," as it was called, proved wholly ineffi- 
cient for accomplishing that which its originators anticipated ; 
and the desire for an independent Classis in America, with full 
power to examine and ordain ministers, became prevalent 
among the more active and intelligent portion of the ministers. 
This was opposed by the mother Church and not a few at 
home, and became at length a bone of contention that threat- 
ened the very existence of the Dutch Church in North America. 
The Church, with few exceptions, was divided into two great 
parties, called the "Coetus" and "Conferentie," the former con- 
tending for an independent organization in this country, the 
latter wishing to remain subject to the Church of Holland, and 
indisposed to acknowledge any as ministers but those ordained 
in the fatherland. It was a long and bitter Avar, characterized 
by genuine Dutch obstinacy. The tAvo parties entered into 
the strife, each as if Christ's kingdom on earth and their souls' 
sah^ation depended on their success in the conflict, leaving no 
doubt in many cases that on both sides there Avere rightful 
members of the church militant. 

The Colony of NcAv-Netherland surrendered to Great 
Britain in 1664. To Avar ds the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the English language began gradually to gain ground 
among the Dutch churches. Colleges had also been established 
in some of the neio'hborino^ colonies ; and churches of other 
denominations had adopted means for the instruction of their 
youth, and were in the habit of examining and ordaining their 
.own ministers. The Dutch Church, denied the exercise of 
these poAA^ers, felt exceedingly straitened in her position. The 
expense of obtaining ministers from Holland Avas no inconsider- 
able item ; and as the ocean Avas not then traversed by steam- 



ers, and the world had not become infected with that spirit of 
haste which these and other apphances have since infused into 
it, it sometimes hap]3ened that not months but actually years 
elapsed between a call and a supply. Congregations could not 
be consulted in the choice of ministers, and sometimes an indi- 
vidual would be thrust upon them who proved most unaccept- 
able. From these and other sources which we have not time 
to mention, the Coetus party were so strengthened in their 
position that they determined to make provision for that eccle- 
siastical independence which they were resolved to maintain, 
and they formed the plan for the erection of a College in this 
city for the express purpose of preparing young men for the 
Grospel ministry. They accordingly obtained a charter from 
Greorge III., through Grovernor Franklin, of the Colony of New- 
Jersey, in the year 1770, incorporating this institution under 
the name of Queen's College. 

The first meeting of its Board of Trustees was held near the 
Court-house, in the county of Bergen, and Dr. Hardenbergh, 
the pastor of the Dutch church in this city, was chosen its first 
President. "Dr. Hardenbergh," says one of his historians, 
' ' was an American. Although he had not been favored with 
the same advantages in the early part of his ministry which 
some of his cotemporaries enjoyed, yet with a powerful mind 
and habits of persevering application he made such progress in 
knowledge that he was justly esteemed a great divine. He 
was ordained by the Coetus, and was the most distinguished 
and able supporter of that party. His piety was ardent, his 
labors indefatigable, and his ministry greatly blessed." He 
died in this place, deeply lamented, in 1792 ; and with the 
death of its President the exercises of the College were sus- 
pended. Four years previous to the obtaining of the charter 
for the College, there went over from this country to Holland 
a young man by the name of John H. Livingston to prosecute 
his studies with a view to the Gospel ministry. During his 
residence in Holland he gained the consent of the parent 
Church to a plan for the separate ecclesiastical organization of 
the Church in this country. That consent was on the ex- 
press condition that the Dutch Church in America should in 
the constitution they formed make ample provision for a 
Theological Professorate, as the Church of Holland could not 



and luould not acknowledge or maintain any connection ivith a 
Church luhich did not provide herself with an educated ministry. 
In 1771, one year after the return of Mr. Livingston to this 
country, the church of New- York, of which he had assumed 
the pastoral charge, and which happily had never been identi- 
fied with either the Coetus or Conferentie party, at his sug- 
gestion issued a circular letter inviting all the ministers, with 
an elder from each congregation, to meet in convention for the 
purpose of effecting a reconciliation. The movement was 
productive of the happiest results ; an entire reconciliation 
was effected among all parties, and Dr. John H. Livingston 
was unanimously appointed Theological Professor. That 
appointment received the full approbation of the Classis of 
Amsterdam, and among the most active and distinguished 
promoters of the plan of union, and the appointment of Dr. 
Livingston to the Theological Professorate, Dr. Hardenbergh, 
the first President of Queen's College, stood prominent. 

The College, we have said, suspended its operations at the 
death of its President, in 1792. Its Trustees, however, pre- 
served its charter, and it experienced a partial revival in 1807, 
when overtures were made by its Trustees to the General 
Synod for a union of the Theological Professorate with the 
College, wherein it was proposed that the Theological Pro- 
fessor should become its President. This movement was not 
foreign to the original charter, which provided that its 
" Trustees should elect, nominate, and appoint a Professor in 
Divinity, who shall and may read lectures in Theology, instruct 
the students in the science of Divine truth and the knowledge 
of the Holy Scriptures ; who also may be the President of the 
College, or not, as the Trustees shall see meet and convenient." 
A covenant was made between the parties, $20,000 were raised 
to endow the Professorship of Theology, and Dr. Livingston 
removed to this city in 1810, and became the second President 
of Queen's College. We may say of the College during all 
this period that, being unendowed, (for during all the time of 
Dr. Livingston's Presidency the whole amount of its means 
was ability to sustain "half a Professorship of Mathematics 
and Natural Philosophy,") receiving no patronage from the 
State, its pecuniary embarrassments were such that its Trustees 
were compelled again and again to suspend its o|)erations. 



8 

This state of things continued until the death of Dr. Livings- 
ton. But while the literary institution, under the pressure of 
circumstances, in those days which tried men's souls, declined 
again and again, there were those who, with sweet confidence 
in the God of Pro^adence and the Promise, expected that it 
would yet live and prove a blessing. Of that number the 
venerated Livingston was one. When one of his students 
expressed to him his fears that the Theological Seminary 
might follow the College in its decline and fall, he replied, 
with the confident look of a prophet : " JSTot so, my son ; I 
know it shall live, and the College shall revive, for the founda- 
tions were laid in the faith and the prayers and amid the tears 
of a little band of the followers of Jesus. Oh yes, we prayed 
and prayed again ; I know that they shall live." We are wit- 
nesses to-day that the faith and confidence of the dying patri- 
arch was not misplaced. Full of honors and of years, this 
good and great man entered into rest in January, 1825. 

Dr. Livingston was succeeded in the same year by Dr. Mil- 
ledoler, the third President of the College. He was appointed 
by General Synod to the Theological chair, made vacant by 
the death of Dr. Livingston. At the time of his appointment 
the College was not in operation, but the conviction was forced 
upon his mind that the well-being and perhaps the very exist- 
ence of the Theological School depended upon the resuscita- 
tion of the College. But how was this to be effected ? The 
College was unendowed. The funds for a second Theological 
Professorship had just been secured. Dr. Milledoler believed 
that the thing might be accomplished by raising the amount 
forthwith for a third Theological Professorship, and obtaining 
gratuitously the services of the Professors in the Literary Insti- 
tution. This plan he proposed to his colleague. Dr. John De 
Witt ; and any one who ever had the good fortune to know 
that beloved and gifted son of the Church, can well reahze 
how heartily he would enter into any arrangement designed to 
promote the cause of truth and science. He at once freely 
consented, and the same having been suggested to some of the 
Trustees, was approved, and gave rise to the covenant entered 
into between the Board of Trustees and General Synod."^ The 

* For this covenant see Minutes of Genei'al Synod for September, 1825, pp. 
20-24. 



funds for tlie endowment of tlie tliird Theological Professor- 
ship were secured. Among the most active and successful 
solicitors of that fund was our present Professor elect, Kev. 
John Ludlow, D. D. ; and of the aggregate amount then raised, 
not less than $10,000 were contributed by the clergy. Others 
gave of their abundance, but these of their penury. Many of 
them, when they gave, handed over the little savings of years. 
Like the Avidow, they "cast in all the living .they had." They 
subscribed their hundreds and pai'cZ them ; and of some of them 
so subscribing I am ready to affirm, that if prompt payment of 
bills incurred for the necessary support of their families had 
been demanded, they would have been compelled to have sold 
portions of their scanty libraries, or the more scanty furniture 
of their households. Such was the spirit of the men who 
revived the College in 1825, in connection with the Seminary^ 
and such the gifts they brought. Let their memory be cher- 
ished, and let their example be held worthy of all imitation. 
Ours was, indeed, an ancestrj?- of hope ; let us prove ourselves 
worthy of it by perfecting their work, and carrying it out to a 
fuller consummation. 

In the following year the Kev. Dr. Cannon was called to the 
Professorship of Ecclesiastical History and Church Govern- 
ment, in the place of Dr. Selah S. Woodhull, who had filled 
the Professoral chair but three months, when he was called to 
his rest and reward. Together, Drs. Milledoler, De Witt, and 
Cannon continued their labors, instructing both in the Seminary 
and College ; the President being the Professor of Moral Phi- 
losophy and the Evidences of Christianity ; Dr. De "Witt, Pro- 
fessor of Belles Lettres and Ehetoric; and Dr. Cannon, of 
Metaphysics and Philosophy of the Human Mind. These, 
with Eobert Adrain, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics, and the 
Eev. W. C. Brownlee, D.D., (one of the most distinguished 
preachers and polemics of the age,) Professor of Languages, 
Greek and Latin, constitu.ted the Faculty ; and at the closing 
term of 1826, they reported the number of students at thirty. 
Dr. Adrain, whose reputation needs no endorsement from me, 
having received and accepted a call to the Professorship of 
Mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania, was succeeded 
in 1826 by the present incumbent, Dr. Strong ; and Dr. Brown- 
lee, in the following year, receiving a call to the Collegiate 



10 

Church in New- York, resigned his Professorship, and was suc- 
ceeded by Joseph Nelson, L L. D. The last named Professor 
was at the time of his appointment, and had been for a number 
of years, totally blind ; but with great powers of memory and 
thorough acquaintance with the studies of his department, he 
conducted the exercises of his room to the very general im- 
provement of his students and acceptance of the Board. I 
remember him well ; how he would sit, with his thumb upon 
the dial of his watch, marking the minutes as they passed, 
allowing to each student his allotted portion, and the facility 
with Avhich he would instantly detect the least mistake in the 
reading of the text or the translation. And I remember, too, 
that nice ear by which, with his class sitting in alphabetical 
order, he would detect the location of the slightest whisper; 
and when rebuking an individual by name for the annoyance, 
it was rare indeed that the person charged had an opportunity 
of entering a protest against the justice of his suspicions. He 
died in 1830, and was succeeded by Eev. Dr. McClelland, who, 
in turn, was succeeded by Professor Ogilby, Dr. McClelland 
having been appointed successor to Dr. John De Witt, who 
died in the midst of his years and u.sefulness in 1831. Pro- 
fessor Ogilby was succeeded by the present incumbent, Dr. 
Proudfit. Our Professorship of Chemistry was not established 
until 1831, (when the Trustees were so fortunate as to secure 
the services of Dr. Lewis C. Beck,) and our Professorship of 
Modern Languages at a still later period. 

The first College exercises were held in a building opposite 
the present residence of Dr. Janeway, which was afterwards 
removed near the "Pottery/' and is the one now known as 
the Lancasterian School. The present building was erected in 
1809. When Dr. Milledoler assumed the Presidency in 1825, 
it was in an unfinished condition; the east wing alone had 
been completed. The west wing was occupied by the teacher 
of a grammar school. There was no chapel, neither were 
there any finished lecture-rooms in the centre of the building, 
—nothing but the rude stone. The principal article of furni- 
ture in the room in which the Board of Superintendents met 
to examine the Theological students was a large carpenter's 
work-bench. The Library contained but few books, mostly 
Dutch, and the Philosophical Apparatus consisted of a single 



11 

spy-glass. It was about tlie commencement of Dr. Milledoler's 
labors that the name of tlic College was changed from Queen's 
to that of Kutgers.* The act of the Legislature sanctioning 
the change bears date November 30th, 1825. Having, with 
his associate Professors, brought the institution into successful 
operation, its number of students averaging from sixty-five to 
eighty, Dr. Milledoler resigned the Presidency of the College 
in 1810, and was succeeded in that office by the Hon. A. 
Bruyn Hasbrouck, LL. D. Dr. Hasbrouck was the first layman 
called to preside over the interests of the College. His ap- 
pointment was made by the Trustees, independent of any 
action on the part of the General Synod. The choice Avas 
one well calculated to promote the interests of the institution. 
It not only enlarged its corps of Professors, but enabled the 
Board to introduce a new department of study — that of Inter- 
national and Constitutional Law. In the following year Dr. 
Milledoler, feeling the need of respite from the labors of a 
long and active life, resigned his Professorship, and was suc- 
ceeded by the present incumbent. Dr. Samuel A. Yan Yranken, 
a son of the Church, beloved for his own and the fathers' sake, 
appointed by the Synod as Professor of Didactic and Polemic 
Theology, and by the Trustees as Professor of the Evidences 
of Christianity. Having filled the oflice most acceptably for 
a period of ten years. President Hasbrouck resigned it, cor- 
dially co-operating in the call made upon the Hon. Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, then Chancellor of the University of New- 
York, to return once more to the bosom of his native State, 
and preside over the institution whose "foundations were laid 
in the faith and prayers, and amid the tears of his fathers." 
Dr. McClelland, resigning his office a year ago, was succeeded 
by the Eev. Dr. Campbell, who will bring no less efficiency to 
his department than that which characterized his predecessor. 

* The name of a noble republican, immortalized by the sacrifice of large 
patrimonial possessions, which for the love of country he abandoned to her 
enemies. From the heights of Harlaera he looked back on his fair inheritance, 
stretching along the blue waters of the Sound, and breathed the noble sentiment 
and devout prayer: "For the love of liberty, I leave all and go forth poor and 
an exile; but if the God of my fathers shall ever permit that I sit down again 
in their ancient hall, then shall all this wealth be held as a tenure at will for 
His glory." "Holy vow, answered by God, and nobly redeemed by its author 
and these who are coming after him." — Dr. Wyckojf's Alumni Address. 



12 

The venerable Cannon, prostrated bj disease and the infirm- 
ities of age, tendered his resignation at the Last meeting of 
General Synod, But Synod could not accept the resignation 
of one who had so long been an ornament and a balance- 
wheel to the institution. They declared him Professor Emeri- 
tus, and directed their Treasurer to continue to him his full 
salary. They feared that his sands of life were nearly run, 
and their prayer was that the unseen hand of the Invisible 
might gently smooth his passage to the tomb, and that when 
his light went out, it might, like the morning star, gently fade 
away amid the coming light of heaven. That prayer is an- 
swered. Ours has been the melancholy privilege this day of 
uniting with the devout men who carried him to his burial. 
We have laid him in his last resting-place, beside his kindred 
and those fellow-laborers who bore with him the heat and 
burden of the day. "Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord." Those who have sat under his instructions can say, as 
they look upon that canvas,* There is a man who never forgot 
the dignity of his office ; who, with the courtesy of the gen- 
tleman and the wisdom of the sage, mingled the kindness and 
affection of a father. His successor. Dr. John Ludlow, in ac- 
cepting the appointment, only returns to the scene of former 
labors, and, we trust, will bring a warm heart, as we know he 
will a well-furnished mind, to the duties of his office. 

Gentlemen, if I had time I should like to s|)eak of some of 
the fruits of the institution. I would just say that among the 
names of our Alumni are to be found those who are respect- 
ably and usefully filling up the field of their appointed labor. 
They are to be found among the ministry of the Episcopal, 
Presbyterian, German Eeformed, Associate Eefbrmed, Congre- 
gational, and in the Dutch Eeformed Church, constituting a 
large proportion of their number. They are to be found 
• among our most respectable lawyers, physicians, and mer- 
chants. Some have been called to Professorships in other 
Colleges and Seminaries ; others are distinguishing themselves 
by their contributions to sacred and polite literature. 

And there are those "who, sworn to man's eternal weal," 
left 



* A fine portrait of Dr. Cannon adorns the College Cliapel. 



13 

"Kindred, home, and ease, and all the cultured jojs 

Of ripe society, 

Went forth," from Rutgers' halls, 

" A noiseless band of heavenly soldiery. 
To tell the heathen of his birthright, and in his hand 
To put the writ of manumission, signed 
By God's own signature; .... 

High on the pagan hills to plant Immanuel's cross, 

And in the wilderness 
Of human waste to sow eternal life." 

Some of these were, but are not, and tlieir sepulchres even 
are not with us. The loved and loving Abeel sleeps among 
his kindred ; but the indefatigable Thompson, the ardent 
Pohlman, the self-denjing Stryker, sleep in the far distant 
land, where the hand of the stranger hath laid them. These, 
with others still living and laboring, are fitting fruits of an 
institution whose second President gave the first impulse to 
the cause of Foreign Missions in this country. 

Such, gentlemeu, is a review of our past history ; and 
whether you look at the objects contemplated by the founder 
of the institution, the Christian influences which have ever 
been around it, the men who have filled its professor al or 
presidential chairs, the fruit it has produced, or the good 
which it is now fitted to accomplish, there is nothing to cause 
us to regret our relationship, much to stimulate to deeds and 
efforts worthy of it. The College, as appears from its Charter, 
owes its origin to "the ministers and elders of the Dutch 
Church, taking into serious consideration the manner in which 
the said Church might be supplied Avith an able, learned, and 
well-qualified ministry." The Church of Holland was distin- 
guished among the churches of the Reformation for her well- 
trained theologians. Her universities were the lights of the 
age ; and many were trained there who afterward became 
highly distinguished in their own and other countries. People 
are sometimes disposed to speak slightingly of the Dutch ; 
but in so doing, they onlj^ betray their ignorance and folly. 
If men would search for deeds of high, holy, and intelligent 
patriotism, let them go to the annals of Holland. Let me 
remind you of the memorable siege of Leyden, which it 
endured in 1573-4, from the Spaniards, under Yaldez. When 
the burgomaster who had charge of the toAvn was urged by 



14 

the Spanisli commander to surrender, lie replied in tlie name 
of the inhabitants, that when provisions failed them, they 
would devour their left hands, reserving their right to defend 
their liberty. And when, at the end of six months, the people 
having consumed every animal, root, and even weeds, and the 
living had become too weak to bury the dead, they became 
frantic with hunger, and demanded of the burgomaster, per- 
emptorily, bread or the surrender of the town, the heroic man 
answered: "I have sworn to defend the city, and by Grod's 
help I mean to keep that oath." "Bread I have none; but if 
my body can afford you relief, take it ; tear it in pieces, and 
let those who are most hungry share it among you I" The 
clamorous multitude stood abashed, and retired in silence. 
The dykes had been cut by order of the Prince of Orange, 
who preferred giving back the land to the sea rather than 
their cruel invaders. " Man's extremity was God's opportu- 
nity." The winds changed, and the waters came rushing up 
over the country, even to the very walls of Leyden; and 
those Spanish bloodhounds, who had boasted that it was as 
impossible for the Dutch to save Leyden out of their hands 
as to pluck the stars from heaven, were driven out of their 
intrenchments, hundreds perishing in the rising waters. But 
noiu mark the sequel of my story. When the Prince of Orange 
visited Leyden, and, with a view of rewarding the citizens for 
their bravery displayed on that occasion, gave them the choice 
of two privileges, exemption from certain taxes, or a Univer- 
sity, they said, "Grive us the University." Noble choice! 
That University earned for Leyden the appellation of the 
Athens of the West. It still stands, and for nearly three 
hundred years has been a monument of their high-souled 
patriotism. And when the descendants of these men came to 
this country, they brought their schoolmasters and their min- 
isters with them ; and, as the charter of Queen's, now Eutgers, 
College testifieg, they desired "an able, learned, and well- 
qualified ministry." 

The history of the past is well calculated to endear this 
institution to the heart of the Dutch Church. It has educated 
a large proportion of her ministry. It has been an important 
nursery to her Theological School ; and the men who are now 
becoming among the most enterprising of her ministry, zealous 



15 

for the extension of licr bounds, and tlie increased piety and 
intelligence of lier members, arc among the warmest friends 
that we number. If tlie College owes its existence to the 
intelligence and piety of the Dutch Church, it has long since 
repaid the debt, and in turn has laid the Church under no 
small obligation to promote its interests by every means in her 
power. That obligation we believe she will not repudiate; 
and when once it is fully recognized, and the institution is 
fairly put on the footing on which it should be, it will be no 
longer a question whether our Alma Mater shall take her 
proper position among kindred institutions. Her sons will 
glory in her name, and the Church and the State will be alike 
proud of their offspring; I mean that kind of pride which 
will lead them to sustain it. And when once the State of 
New-Jersey and the Dutch Church give it that patronage 
which her Alumni ought to secure in these two respective 
fields, the best wishes of its friends will be realized, and we 
shall be better fitted than ever to do justice to all others that 
may choose to cast in their lot with us. 

But while in some respects this College may be called the 
College of the Dutch Church, be it remembered, it has never 
been characterized by any thing of a sectarian nature. On 
the contrary, its Board of Trustees, in filling its professoral 
chairs, have never given the least occasion for the charge that 
they were influenced either by a sectional or bigoted spirit. 
Our Chair of Languages is filled by a Scotch Presbyterian, 
and his predecessor came to us from the shades of Columbia 
College, and left us to fill a professoral chair in the Seminary 
of the Episcopal Church, to which communion he belonged. 
He was a gentleman and a scholar. And that he did not 
forfeit caste by his temporary sojourn with us, is evident from 
the testimonial lately given by the distinguished Bishop of 
New-Jersey, who, among other afiiictions of this mortal life, 
accounted that to be chief that a certain well-known document 
"reached him on the anniversary of the day which separated 
him from his beloved Ogilby in the flesh." Our Professors of 
Belles Lettres and Ehetoric and Chemistry will have to trace 
their national descent to some other land than that of Holland. 
And any one who last year entered our mathematical room, 
and saw in a simple wheel, properly adjusted, an illustration 



16 

of Galileo's theory, more simple and yet quite as clear as that 
afforded by the pendulum which Fouchalt set in motion under 
the dome of the Pantheon, might have known that the presid- 
ing genius of that department came from the most inventive 
branch of the American family, and have learned that a 
Yankee^ under proper Dutch culture, is capable of demonstrat- 
ing, even to a Frenchman, "that some things can be done as 
well as others." And if our worthy President bears a Dutch 
name, surely the Du.tch Church and the State of New- Jersey 
will regard our institution with no less favor on that account : 
one of New-Jersey's honored sons, a descendant of one of 
Grod's faithful ministers, long since gone to his rest, but whose 
fruit remaineth. Said Dr. Alexander, of Princeton: "If you 
wish to find a community characterized by an intelligent 
piety, a love of order, and all that tends to make society what 
it should be, seek it among the people of Somerset and Mid- 
dlesex. And their present character," he added, "is owing 
very much, under God, to the faithful preaching of the gospel 
by old Dominie Frelinghuysen." A name honored in the 
Church, in the State; and' if the best wishes and efforts of not 
the least intelligent portion of the nation failed of placing him 
in the chair of the Yice-President, let us congratulate our- 
selves that we have borne him past the chair of a Yice- 
President to the Presidency itself 

And now, gentlemen, what do we want, to make our future 
what it should be ? We want every thing right, in-doors and 
out of doors. Professors, like "bishops, mu.st have good 
report of them that are without," and also of them that are 
within, for the insiders will soon be the outsiders; a simple 
little fact, that is too often lost sight of We want our Pro- 
fessors to be what they should be; and I speak the more 
plainly on this point, because it is the honest conviction of 
my heart that every one of them is entirely capable of doing 
both justice and honor to his department. I do not stand up 
here arrogantly to dictate to my superiors in age, wisdom, and 
exjDcrience ; but, if I may be allowed to throw out a passing 
hint, let it be taken for what it is worth, and let it not be 
thought that the mere saying of what a thing ought to 5e, is an 
implication that it now is not what it should be. We deem it 
of immense importance to the success of our institution that 



11 

the demand made upon lier undergraduates, both as to the 
general tenor of their deportment and the preparation of their 
studies, should be^ such as to secure in after-life the conviction 
that they were faithfully and honestly dealt with. We would 
have both the discipline and requirements of the institution to be 
such, that when a young man leaves these walls, his should be 
the conviction, which it takes but a httle time to ripen when it 
is just, that here is a system of discipline and instruction which 
he approves, which his better judgment could cheerfully and 
honestly commend to his friends, the junior members of his 
family, or, if God should spare him to see the day, to his own 
children. Let our Professors combine present concihation 
with future approbation ; in all their demands have an eye to 
the future man as well as the present stripling, regarding with 
deeper interest the future rather than the present verdict. A 
company of young men, trained under such influences, would 
constitute a body of Alumni whose love and affection for their 
Alma Mater would strengthen with increasing years, and would 
prove a mighty, zealous, and effective host, ready at all times 
to rally in her behalf. He must be a sad creature indeed who 
can ever think well of a system that suffered him to pass the 
best and most important years of his life in a state of undis- 
turbed stupidity and indolence ; and a sadder friend or father, 
who would peril his friends or children by a like regimen. 
Nothing can ever be lost by a proper demand of all that is 
right; much is jeoparded by the neglect of it. Indeed, I have 
never known a young man, distinguished by what should 
characterize his position, to speak in any but the most respect- 
ful terms of the Professor who demanded due preparation and 
thorough study, and as he entered his room, his thoughtful 
and respectful attention ; while he would invariably speak 
shghtingly of the facility with which another could be 
^^ dodged," even were he himself the most "artful of dodgers." 
And, indeed, such is the ordinary sense of honesty, and such 
the general perception of what is right and fitting on the part 
of young men, that I would as lief form an estimate of the 
manner in which a professorship was filled from the students, 
as from any other source whatsoever. If the student is making 
progress, he will not mthhold the credit from his instructor ; 
if, on the contrary, his natural indolence or inattention is not 



18 

conquered, and his movement is retrograde, he will be sure to 
lay the blame at some other door than his own. And now, 
gentlemen of the Alumni, if any should ask, What has this 16 
do with our duty ? I answer : Some of you have reached an 
age, and attained a position, which entitles your counsel to at 
least respectful consideration ; and if any of you should ever 
attain the conviction that in any of the departments of our 
College there were things that might and should be remedied 
for the best interests of our Alma Mater, and those committed 
to her care, give the seasonable hint in the proper manner and 
in the right spirit, and it will be time enough to think any 
chair might have a better occupant when you find its possessor 
indisposed to listen to his friends. 

Well, with all right in-doors, what do we want out of doors ? 
And surely you who look back a score of years, or even half 
a score, can say that matters are very different from what they 
were. Two handsome structures have arisen, the one on our 
right hand, the other on our left — the President's house and 
Yan Nest Hall. May the former always be, as it ever has 
been, distinguished by the Christian courtesy and urbanity of 
its inmates. Long may the latter stand ; and when a genera- 
tion arises to ask. Why called Van Nest Sail ? let it be an- 
swered: To commemorate the name and services of a long- 
tried, devoted, and liberal friend of the institution ; one who 
never faltered even in its darkest hour, and who lived to see 
in its successful operation, the fulfilment of his hopes, his 
efforts, his prayers, and his most generous contributions. A 
new fence adorns our campus, very different from the one 
which in other days proved a sore temptation to every passer- 
by to give it a '4ift downwards," and in whose total and final 
fall (occurring somewhat mysteriously, I believe, in a single 
night) every lover of the College most heartily rejoiced. The 
passing traveller will, I am confident, view with pleasure the 
improvement, and will say of it, as we often say when passing 
a place which gives evidence of the taste, care, and thrift of 
its occupant : "It looks as if somebody lived there." Well, 
gentlemen, we have the house and the artisans, and what we 
want more are the tools and materials to work upon. Our 
College Library is not what it should be. It should speedily 
be increased by hundreds and thousands of volumes. I mean 



19 

volumes of books that are hoohs. Our pliilosopliical, astrono- 
mical, and chemical apparatus is not what it should be. We 
have not kept progress with the times. Our number of 
students (although our last accession was the largest ever 
occurring in a single year) is not what it should be. We 
want money and we want men. These are called the sinews 
of war. We would use them in the best of wars. To secure 
these, we want uniied co-operation — a provoking of one another 
to love and good works. Yery many of our Alumni have 
entered upon a profession that forbids any thing in the shape 
of worldly emolument ; and from this portion, much in the 
shape of direct pecuniary aid is not to be looked for: but 
there are others, successful in mercantile and professional life, 
who need only to feel one with another that they will not 
stand alone in any effort they may make in behalf of their 
Alma Mater, who need only to be assured that they will be 
numbered with the oc tto^Xol, to come forward cheerfully and 
promptly, and make duty a pleasure. It affords me great 
satisfaction to say that the initiative in this matter has been 
taken ; that a few of our Alumni from the neighborhood of 
Newark, with some friends, secured last year not less than 
twenty scholarships of $500 each to our institution ; and that 
ball must be kept in motion. Who is willing to-day to give it 
another turn, and to keep it turning till we shall all be satisfied 
with its accumulation ? The good- accomplished in this world 
is very much the result of example, and the leaders in any 
good enterprise are worthy of all honor. So far as my own 
observation goes, I think that one generous man will generally 
make about a dozen other generous men ; and one mean man 
will ordinarily make about fift}^ even meaner than himself; 
and they are welcome to their majority. I can only say that 
there were very few mean men in College in my day ; and if 
some of them will only be as generous with their own cash as 
they used to try to be with that of their worthy fathers, the 
funds will be forthcoming. I have not the time to advocate 
the plan of scholarships, but who, to whom God has given the 
means, would not esteem it a privilege, by a yearly contribu- 
tion of thirty dollars, to afford instruction to a mind that may 
yet become a peerless gem in the field of literature, or a 
polished shaft in the armory of truth ? Every mind thus 



20 

trained may be expected in its turn to train others ; extend 
the benefit received, and thus the good you do will be perpetu- 
ated, live after you. It will be the most enduring monument 
you can rear to your memory. 

There is a way in which such scholarships may be used as 
2orizes to excite to a noble and healthful emulation. Where a 
scholarship is given, and the donor has no one individual to 
whom he wishes the benefit thereof to accrue, let him place it 
as a prize to be won by the best scholar entering the Freshman 
from the Grammar-school, or to be claimed in each higher year 
by him who has made the best progress in the former, either 
for his own benefit or that of some individual (under certain 
restrictions) whom he shall nominate. "We believe that this is 
a matter in which our American Colleges are far behind those 
♦ of the Old World. There, throughout the whole of the stu- 
dent's course, prizes in the shape of books, medals, scholar- 
ships and fellowships are used as incentives to intellectual effort. 
Here, with but few exceptions, nothing awaits the most pains- 
taking and diligent student but perchance an honorary speech 
to be awarded at the very end of his course. We see the best 
men and the best institutions of our land calling out intellectual 
effort through the mediu.m of prizes. Many of the best tracts 
that have ever issued from the press, and some of the very 
choicest volumes of Christian literature, have been called forth 
as prize essays. Let the same instrumentality be brought to 
bear upon the College, and who doubts but that it would excite 
to a generous emulation, and elevate the tone of its scholar- 
ship ? Many an individual really needing, but sometimes too 
high-spirited to receive aid in the ordinary channels, might 
thus secure it, in a way compatible with the feelings of the 
most sensitive nature, and at the same time in a manner calcu- 
lated to win the respect and admiration of his noblest associ- 
ates. There may be, in the minds of some, objections of an 
undefined nature to the introduction of any system of prizes ; 
but after mature deliberation and consultation, I am constrained 
to believe that, compared with the benefits accruing, they 
would never for a moment be thought o£ Let the experiment 
be tried. Say to the Kector of your Grrammar-school, or to 
the Principal of some respectable academy in your neighbor- 
hood, " I have a scholarship, the benefit of which I offer as a 



21 

prize to your best scholar entering Kutgers College." You will 
thus not only place the institution prominently before the acade- 
mies, but at the same time you will bring out students, and such 
students as will live, we trust, to do honor to their Alma Mater. 

Our Board of Trustees, at their last regular meeting, passed 
a resolution that it was expedient to raise the sum of $60,000 
for the better endowment of the College. It was not contem- 
plated to raise this sum chiefly from the Alumni, but princi- 
pally among those who felt that their affinities either of church 
or state linked them most closely to this institution. But, 
gentlemen, we shall assuredly greatly facilitate that movement 
if we ourselves are up and doing according to our ability. 
There is much force in the maxim, " The gods help those who 
help themselves." He who helps himself shows that he is 
worthy of being helped. Our Board of Trustees are animated 
by a spirit that seeks the best interests of the institution ; and 
as they fill up the vacancies from time to time occurring, they 
are now calling into their corporation those who, in the nature 
of things, must feel most deeply their obligation to labor for 
the welfare of the College. If I mistake not, the election of 
Trustees a year ago introduced six new members into the 
Board, five of whom were Alumni. This is as it should he. 
When the children are come to man's estate, why should the 
inheritance be committed to the guardianship of strangers ? 

I said there was a class of Alumni from whom we should 
expect but' little in the way of pecuniary contributions ; but 
these are not the least honored of our number, and laboring in 
their appropriate sphere they may prove most effective in their 
co-operation. They are wielding an influence for time and 
eternity ; and if they are of one mind, and are enabled to bear 
uniform testimony as to the capacity of the College for fur- 
nishing a good and solid education to the young men intrusted 
to its care, equal to that of other institutions ; if they can tell 
of a corps of Professors equal in talent and energy to that of 
any other ; if they can conscientiously recommend, there are 
none whose position affords a better opportunity for securing 
any number of students that we may deem desirable. And I 
appeal to this portion of my fellow Alumni, (not omitting the 
others,) and ask if they will not bestir themselves in this 
matter. Will you not look around you, and make each one 



99 



an effort to secure at least one student, more if jou can ? If 
there is any thing that stands in the way of your influencean 
this respect, speak it right out, brother, and we will try and 
disabuse your mind, if the prejudice is unfounded ; or if mat- 
ters are not as they should be, we will try and make them 
right, and, God helping us, we will do it. You will never 
jiiend a matter by standing at a distance and venting upon it 
either your sneers, your groans, or your maledictions. The 
better way is to take hold, encourage to a ^''pull altogether''' in 
the right direction, and so doing we shall soon put affairs in 
such a position that no man shall venture to decry them. The 
more students we can gain to the institution, the more friends ; 
the more friends, the more money; and " money," says the 
wise man, "answereth all things." With money we could 
increase our library; we could enlarge our philosophical, astro- 
nomical, and chemical apparatus ; we could make mineralogical, 
geological, and other collections, that would be vastly instruct- 
ive ; we could enlarge our corps of Professors. All this is not 
the work of a day, or to be "effected by Xh.Qfiat of a resolution; 
but it is all perfectly practicable, and can be effected by a faith 
very far short of that which is needed to remove mountains. 
Until it can be accomplished, let every man, animated by a 
proper fdial affection to his Alma Mater, secure whatever of 
books, philosophical apparatus, or collections for our museum, 
that it may be in the power of his hands to do. 

Let me venture another suggestion. There are many who 
will feel that it is not in their power to contribute for a scho- 
larship. Would it not be a pleasure to some such, by club- 
bing together, to contribute as members of a class or other- 
wise ? I should esteem it a pleasant sight, when passing the 
eye over the shelves of the library, to see upon such a shelf 
"a remembrancer from the class of 1830," or in our museum 
a case containing " contributions from the class of 1840 ;" ano- 
ther marked " contributions from the class of 1845 ;" or a grati- 
fication to learn that some others had combined to present our 
philosophical department with some appropriate gift. We 
should then have an object before us, and one which would 
often afford to the most modest a ground for soliciting a gift, 
where we otherwise would not have felt at liberty to make the 
application. These would constitute solid contributions, im- 



23 

part a noble exam23le, and in the aggregate not only supply a 
great need, but give weight and character to our institution. 
I know at this very time two gentlemen, one an Alumnus of the 
College, the other not, who are making each a valuable col- 
lection of works upon particular subjects, which they intend 
shall ultimately grace the shelves of our library. Now give 
me a hundred such hearts beating with warm and generous 
emotions for our Alma Mater, and they will prove fruitful of 
expedients whereby to advance her best and highest interests. 
It would be worth coming up here once a year to look at them, 
and catch a spark of good generous fire from their nature. 
Such hearts we want, and such hearts we must have. Their 
influence would be felt through every fibre of the institution, 
imparting life, activity, energy to its every department. Who, 
then, is willing to lay such a heart to-day upon the altar of his 
Alma Mater? It is not numbers we want, but men ; men of 
pith and practical effort. It was not numbers that gave to 
Athens her high supremacy ; it was the unconquerable will of 
those few determined spirits who directed her councils and 
fought her battles. The age in which we live demands energy, 
earnestness, perseverance ; and if an institution be not one that 
aims to keep progress with the age, it had better keep behind 
the scenes, and not adventure itself to the public gaze. People 
want to know what we are, and what we have in us, and woe 
to us if we can't abide the scrutiny ! The days of Eip Yan 
"Winkle are passed, and he who sleeps twenty years now had 
better never wake up again in this world. -Gentlemen^ pardon 
the freedom of these remarks. If I have spoken plainly, I 
have spoken honestly. I have only exhorted you to do that 
which myself am willing to do. And I trust that men will 
never have occasion to say of any of the sons of Eutgers, what 
Christ said of the Scribes and Pharisees: "They say, and do 
not ; for they bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and 
lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not 
move them with one of their fingers." 



il 






